Clearly, some editions of TTax have 3 questions. (Mine does. I applied updates today.) Some appear to have only 2, according to posters.
Logically, I conclude that nothing should be entered in "Other books and course-related".
- "Books and Materials Required to be purchased from the school" -- stuff that is required, and must buy from the school.
- "Books and Materials Not Required to be purchased from the school" ---- stuff that is required, and can buy from anywhere
- "Other books and course-related" -- stuff that is not required
but you can't actually deduct stuff that wasn't required. (e.g. Decorations for your dorm room or a monogram for your lab coat).
So I entered place-holder values into these 3 fields (111, 222, and 333) and discovered that TTax uses them to complete rows 3, 4, and 5 of "Part VI" of the Student Information Worksheet. The effect of entering a figure for "Other books and course-related" is identical to the effect of adding that figure to "Books and Materials Not Required to be purchased from the school." So if you have $100 of expenses and you're wondering whether you should include it in "not required to be purchased from school" or "Other books...", it doesn't matter.
Whether you use logic or you look at what it does with the numbers, "Other books and course-related" looks like a useless prompt.
- If it must be purchased from the school, put it in "Required to be purchased from the school".
- If it must be purchased, and you can purchase it anywhere, put it in "Not Required to be purchased from the school"
- If it need not be purchased, don't put it anywhere.
